Centric To Host 'Emancipation Day Town Hall' With MC Hammer, Chuck D, Monie Love and Others

The network partners with D.C. officials and Howard University to commemorate President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation

To commemorate the freeing of enslaved workers and laborers nine months before President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, Centric has partnered with the office of D.C. City Councilman Vincent Orange, the Office of Cable Television and Howard University’s television station WHUT to host the Emancipation Day Town Hall.

The town hall style debate will take place on Sunday, April 13 at the Lincoln Theatre and will be live streamed on CentricTV.com and OCT.gov. Over the past two years, the annual event was more of a debate that focused on key matters affecting modern-day Black America with panelists from liberal and conservative political backgrounds.

This year, however, town hall panelists will include hip-hop generation leaders like rappers MC Hammer, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, Monie Love and Toni Blackman, as well as GlobalGrind.com President Michael Skolnik. The assorted panel, who are also political activists and entrepreneurs, will discuss and engage in constructive, meaningful dialogue on solutions that can be made in the community in relation to an array of topics like education, health care, unemployment, prison reform, and violence. The panel will also address whether or not celebrity and material wealth can be a mechanism for social change.

The town hall will be moderated by TV host, reporter and producer Robyn Murphy, and will be edited into a television special to air on Centric at a later date.